OPG internship questions
1. What was the obstacles you faced doing an important assignment and how did you solve it?
This semester I have been taking a course on heat transfer. In lecture the prof doesn't use slides and
instead chooses to write on the board. However, his penmanship is not the best and regardless of where I
sit in the lecture hall I'm unable to make out a large amount of his derivations and equations related to
course. We have weekly assignments for this class and often times I find myself unable to even to use my
notes as Im unsure that the equations I have copied in class are accurate. In order to finish the assignments
to the best of my abilities i take time on the weekends to read ahead of the class and take notes from the
textbook, so that I am able to ask him questions during his office hours the following Monday and finish
the assignment without struggling to read my notes from class.
2. Tell me where you had conflict with group members and what did you do? (CONFLICT IN A GROUP)
Earlier this semester I had been working in a group that was given the task of creating an autonomous
robot for a course. When deciding how to enclose the electrical components and Arduino for the device,
one of my group members mentioned how they thought using styrofoam as a chassis for the device would
be suitable. I had qualms with this idea as build quality was a part of the evaluation of our device, and I
didn't think that using styrofoam would help us score well in this category. However my team member
was very adamant and seemed increasingly hostile in this situation. He evaded my questions as to how
styrofoam would be good in terms of the build quality of the device, and began to cut me off to point out
the benefits of using styrofoam such as it convenience. Instead of continuing to play devils advocate with
him I instead asked him to state the pros of using styrofoam and asked to do a silent vote on it as a group.
Our group obviously chose not to use the styrofoam and I avoided arguing with a group member instead
dealing with the issue democratically.
3. Tell me where you applied creativity
I recently attended McGill’s robohacks. My team and I were given 24 hours to make any device of our
choosing while using some items from a list of technology provided by the competition. One of the
devices available was a myo band, which is placed on a users forearm and can detect hand gesture they
make like closing a fist, or moving their hand left or right. I thought of using this device to create a remote
controlled car controlled by a users hand gestures. I pitched it to my team and we succeeded in making it
within the time limit, and ended up winning first place in the competition.
4. Tell me when you went above and beyond what did you do and what were the outcomes (INITIATIVE/
LEADERSHIP)
During my summer 2016 coop working for Foresters Financial, the main task my coworker and I were
given for that summer was to craft declination letters for insurance applicants that the company was
behind on. We had to make almost 500 letters in word and the process was very inefficient - we would
have to copy and paste names and addresses from other programs and format the letter by ourselves.
Instead of doing this for all 500 letters I took initiative and learned how to make a form letter in Microsoft
word where the formatting was already completed and you would just have to switch only some parts of
the document. I taught my colleague how to navigate through and use the form, and it saved us quite a bit
of time with the task - we ended up finishing it in 3 weeks as opposed to the two months we were given to
complete it.
5. Why do you want to work at OPG? (HOW I WILL SUCCEED)
I want to work at OPG because I don't just want any co-op position related to my field of study, but rather
one that fosters continuous learning within my job. I understand that OPG encourages employees and
students working with the company to broaden their horizons, and provides support such as mentoring
relationships, meaningful job assignments and projects, and training. At the end the day I don't just want a
position that will have fulfilled my coop requirements but rather one where I have gained skill sets related
to my field of study and connected with and learned from people with valuable knowledge and insight
related to their work. I believe that my interest in actually learning from my role at OPG as opposed to
treating it just as a job to be done will be reflected in the work i produce as a coop student also, making
me a good fit for success within this position.
6. Tell me about a time when you were proud of work you accomplished?
Last semester I took a course related to partial differential equations. I scored a 70 percent overall on the
two midterms within the course, and as the exam was approaching our instructor gave my class the choice
of using the marks from our two midterms within our final grade or writing a 90% exam as the majority
of the class was failing. We had to let our professor know before writing the exam which marking scheme
each of us wanted. Although i was passing the course with my midterm grades I opted to take the 90%
exam and studied well in advance for it. I ended up receiving an A+ in the course and am glad I took the
challenge of a 90% exam instead of settling for my midterm grades.
7. What do you think are some of the problems concerning the future of OPG?
As OPG is concerned with power generation and generating clean sources of energy, one end all goal I
see for it is the eventual use of the generation of energy through nuclear fusion. However with this said I
think that informing the public about the how safe nuclear energy really is is important in maintaining a
good relationship with OPG’s customers. I live near port union and have a clear sight of the OPG power
plant in pickering. I volunteer at a canoe camp during the summer and ill sometimes hear kids screaming
don't touch the water while in their kayaks, as they believe that the plant dumps nuclear waste into the
water, which is obviously not true. But i think that continuing to inform the public of the benefits of
nuclear energy along with an accurate depiction of how clean it is is very important especially within the
future as nuclear fusion seems a viable option for energy generation.
8. How does your skill set and experience directly relate to each of the job duties found in the job
description?
I see you’re looking for an individual who is familiar with the Microsoft Office Suite. This past Summer
2017 I completed a Co-op term at the Toronto District School Board as a Specialized Engineering
Summer Student, where I worked with other summer students to transfer HVAC and electrical data from
as-built drawings onto an ArcGIS database. This project involved us keeping track of our progress using
Excel data sheets and communicating with our supervisor via Microsoft Outlook. Moreover, I am
comfortable working in fast -paced environments with deadlines. During my Summer 2016 Internship at
Foresters Financial I held the role of Case Manager, in which I used Microsoft Word to craft letters to
insurance applicants and used Excel to keep track of their cases. My colleague and I had to craft over 500
insurance declination letters that the New Business department was behind on. We were given 2 months
to complete this task but ended up completing it in a little under 3 weeks. Finally, being in McMaster’s
Management specialization within Mechanical Engineering has taught me valuable leadership and
presentation skills. I have taken courses that place an emphasis on team projects and presentations related
to business, and have honed my presentation and interpersonal skills for these courses while doing very
well within them.
1. Tell us about a time where you made a mistake that negatively affected someone or your team
During my Summer coop in 2017 as a mechanical engineering student at the TDSB I had to complete
another team mates work related to extracting architectural information from an as built drawing. I was
unaware I had to provide the dimensions of the building I was working on as part of the architectural
work and our supervisor noticed they were missing upon reviewing our work. He was upset with the
architectural student and asked him to pay more attention to his work. My team member was unaware it
was actually me who forgot the dimensions, so i chose to let the supervisor know instead of letting it
slide. I told him i took over my team members work in order to move ahead to another school. He was
understanding of my actions and gave me the opportunity to dimension the unfinished drawings.
2. Describe a time where you had to change your workstyle to be more effective in a team
At my last Engineering co-op with the Toronto District School Board my team and I were challenged to
catalogue the water sources across all schools within the TDSB such as water fountains and taps, and
were given two months to finish the task. We ended up finishing it within 5 weeks as a result of us
creating a rotational work schedule to prioritize the catalogue task over our regular work. Instead of
comfortably working as a group of 5 on the project we opted to rotate in teams of 2 at an increased pace
of work. The work was accurate as well. When our supervisor reviewed our work very little changes
needed to be made in a catalogue of over 6000 water sources.
3. Describe a time you took on too large a work load and had to prioritize and adjust accordingly?
Actually this past week I decided to take on producing all the CAD drawings for sumobots, and extra
curricular i participate in at school. Im pretty comfortable using Autodesk inventor and thought I could
finish the drawings for my group relatively fast over the break. However it has been difficult balancing
that work as well as preparing for interviews and studying for midterms this week so I asked one of my
group members if they would be okay splitting the CAD drawings with me as it is the bulk of the work at
this stage in the project. I believe I was a little too ambitious with trying to finish all the drawings by
myself and am glad I asked for help.